UFC Experience Comes to Quebec

Toronto, Canada – The Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC®) makes its first Canadian stop of the year by bringing UFC Experience, a day of free events open to the public at Place Fleur de Lys, on Sunday, April 13, in anticipation of The Ultimate Fighter® Nations Finale at the Colisée Pepsi on April 16. Fans can enjoy open workouts, interactive activities, guest appearances and more.

UFC will hold its open workouts in La Cour des Anges and will showcase eight athletes from the main card including middleweight headliners Michael Bisping and Tim Kennedy. The No. 5-ranked Bisping (25-5, fighting out of Manchester, England), who won season three of The Ultimate Fighter, comes back after almost a year outside the OctagonTM following a career-threatening eye injury, while the No. 9-ranked Kennedy (17-4, fighting out of Austin, Texas) looks to improve upon his 2-0 UFC record that saw him most recently knock out Rafael Natal in spectacular fashion in November 2013.

Series veterans and The Ultimate Fighter® Nations rival coaches Patrick Côté (20-8, fighting out of Rimouski, Quebec) and Kyle Noke (20-6-1, fighting out of Dubbo, New South Wales) will also participate, along with welterweight finalists, Olivier Aubin-Mercier (4-0, fighting out of Montreal) and Chad Laprise (7-0, fighting out of London, Ontario), and middleweight contender Elias Theodorou (8-0, fighting out of Toronto). The other middleweight participant will be revealed in the season’s last episode airing on April 9.

In addition to open workouts, Firas Zahabi, renowned mixed martial arts trainer and head coach at Montreal’s Tristar Gym, will lead an MMA demonstration with two-time Olympic gold medallist Kaillie Humphries. Humphries earned her second straight Olympic gold medal in bobsleigh in Sochi in February 2014. In recognition of her accomplishment, Humphries and brakeman Heather Moyse were named Canadian flag bearers for the Closing Ceremony.

UFC Experience also includes a fun and interactive fan zone offering fans a chance to pose with a UFC belt and test their skills with a punch strength machine. Fans can also enjoy autograph sessions with UFC welterweight Rory MacDonald (16-2, fighting out of Montreal), as well as UFC middleweights Francis Carmont (22-7, fighting out of Montreal) and Uriah Hall (9-4, fighting out of New York, New York).

Martial arts will be on display throughout the day, as students from Studios Unis d'auto-defense will also perform two demonstrations.

Please see below for a full schedule of the day’s events on April 13 at Place Fleur de Lys.

The Quebec Finale is the first of five Canadian events on the UFC’s schedule in 2014 as the UFC is also set to visit Vancouver on June 14, Toronto on September 27, Halifax on October 4 and Montreal on December 6.

For more information or current fight news, visit ufc.com. All bouts live and subject to change.

About the Ultimate Fighting Championship®Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC®) is the premier mixed martial arts (MMA) organization and largest pay-per-view event provider in the world. Headquartered in Las Vegas with offices in London, Toronto, Beijing, Singapore and Sao Paulo, UFC produces more than 40 live events annually that consistently sell-out some of the most prestigious arenas around the globe. UFC programming is broadcast in over 145 countries to 800+ million TV households worldwide in 28 different languages. In Canada, the UFC has broadcast agreements with Sportsnet 360 and TVA Sports, which includes live events broadcasts, The Ultimate Fighter® reality television show and thousands of hours of programming. In 2014, UFC launched UFC FIGHT PASS™, a digital subscription service with exclusive live events, thousands of fights on-demand and original content. The UFC organization also licenses over 100 UFC GYM® locations, and owns UFC.TV® (offering live event broadcasts and video on-demand around the world), UFC FIT™ (an in-home fitness and nutrition program), UFC Magazine, and has a videogame franchise with EA SPORTS, UFC Fight Club®, UFC Fan Expo®, Octagon™ branded apparel, best-selling DVDs and Blu-rays and Topps Trading Cards. For more information, visit www.ufc.ca and follow UFC at www.facebook.com/UFCCanada and Twitter: @UFC_CA.